Amazon is just following in a long line of other companies. Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Zynga, etc. Really this is just a sympton of broken credit card model. Lower cost and more user friendly to make one payment gets a bunch of tokens and then buy on site. I mean an physical arcade might accept credit cards for a bulk purchase of tokens but they aren't going to install a credit card reader on every game and charge the card $0.50 a swipe. Casino's do the same thing. You can buy chips for a CC cash advance at the cage but you can't hand the blackjack dealer your card to swipe for every hand.

Credit cards are a pain in the butt and these in house tokens are a way to make them a little less of a pain (for both consumer and merchant). This neither helps nor hurts Bitcoin in the slightest.

Amazon is just following in a long line of other companies. Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Zynga, etc. Really this is just a sympton of broken credit card model. Lower cost and more user friendly to make one payment gets a bunch of tokens and then buy on site. I mean an physical arcade might accept credit cards for a bulk purchase of tokens but they aren't going to install a credit card reader on every game and charge the card $0.50 a swipe. Casino's do the same thing. You can buy chips for a CC cash advance at the cage but you can't hand the blackjack dealer your card to swipe for every hand.

Credit cards are a pain in the butt and these in house tokens are a way to make them a little less of a pain (for both consumer and merchant). This neither helps nor hurts Bitcoin in the slightest.

Since this is already posted in dozens of forums, allow me to go COMPLETELY OT based on what you just said DT.

You know who would be the perfect candidate for Bitcoins? It doesn't help with charging them by the day or what not, but redbox. A $1.25 rental half of that goes to the credit card company. Of course they would have to have you send $20 in BTC for a DVD rental and when you return it, they send the coins back... but they could double their profits or reduce the rental fee back to a buck.

While James should know better, in many peoples' eyes, Amazon Coins is just "one more virtual currency" alongside Bitcoin, Microsoft Points, Linden Dollars, and Facebook Credits.

This is nonsense, and I'd like to explain why Bitcoin and Amazon Coins are as different as bumble bees and blueberry muffins. They are not both virtual currencies, of the same ilk, but fundamentally separate things entirely.

1) Bitcoin is actually a currency, while Amazon Coins are just US dollar tokens, spendable only with Amazon. Amazon Coins are a proxy of the USD, meaning they are USD with a different name, not a unique currency at all. They are dollars, but less useful.

2) Amazon Coins are non-transferable. What kind of "currency" is non-transferable? Transferability should be a prerequisite for the term "currency."

3) Amazon Coins are 1-way, meaning you buy them, then you use them for stuff. You cannot resell Amazon Coins back for dollars or any other currency.

4) Amazon Coins are territory and content restricted. Only useful where Amazon permits, and only usable to buy Amazon stuff.

6) Amazon Coins bow down to all US regulation. The moment the US Gov says no, they will vanish.

7) You have no claim of ownership over Amazon Coins. Amazon can remove them from your account with a click of a button and they are likely never legally your property whatsoever.

Amazon Coins are not a currency in any proper sense of the term, and provide no interesting utility whatsoever. It's a marketing ploy to get customers to provide interest-free float capital to Amazon (customers buy coins, then spend them later, meaning Amazon holds that balance as capital upon which it can operate and profit). There's nothing wrong with Amazon doing this, but it's not a currency.

Amazon Coins are just Amazon Gift Cards, but they've renamed them Coins and made them less versatile.

Ironically, Amazon Coins will generally be welcomed and trumpeted by the public as a legitimate Virtual Currency while Bitcoin remains marginalized for "not being real money." But we know the public has little understanding of money in the first place, so this should come as no surprise.

I'm not so sure. Sheeple will hear about Amazon coin. Then when they understand its just Amazon's crappy alternative to Itunes gift cards, if they then associate it with Bitcoin.... that's not what Bitcoin is at all and I think it provides no help at all.

Yes, Gas stations. I just read a (few years old) article where it said in the US on average gas stations pay 2x more in credit card fees as they make in net profit. IOW, their profits could triple by accepting bitcoin . And if they sacrifice some of that to reduce prices, I dont know about the US, but here gas is mighty expensive and people actively search very hard for the cheapest gas prices, or drive quite a while. So cheap gas might be a nice incentive for them to buy some bitcoins to use at the pump.